It is estimated that the total value of counterfeit transactions taking place globally is around 500 billion Euro (approximately $680 billion) per year. This equates to estimated damages of between 5% and 7% of the value of world trade. Current anti-counterfeit systems are based on proprietary solutions that can be manipulated by hackers or rogue employees or tampered with. Improvements are needed, including improvements that can utilize a mobile authentication client to create a live audit trail that cannot be modified, and which can authenticate a physical item to thereby protect against counterfeit products.